Nate's Seventh Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Nate's seventh birthday with a Harry Potter party.  I am not allowing myself to think about the fact that I have a seven year old until Wednesday, when he actually turns seven.  Anyways, we worked really hard on making this a wonderful party.  My love for Harry Potter only fueled the fires of creativity.  We went all out for this party.  Seriously.

Despite the long hours that we spent planning and preparing for this party, I think that the most difficult part of the entire process came in choosing who would come to the party.  If Nate had had his way, he would have invited all 19 children from his class, all of the kids in his Primary class, friends from church, friends from other classes at school, plus family friends.  That's just the child that Nate is; He never wants to do anything that would hurt anybody.  In fact, the only criticism on his report card was that he needs to work on telling the other kids when they're doing something that he doesn't like, instead of just tolerating it.  So narrowing down his invite list was very challenging.  We talked about how people are still your friends, even your good friends, even if you don't invite them to your birthday party.  We did the huge party thing last year and are never doing that again, so we told Nate that he could invite seven people since he's turning seven years old.  Nate wrote a list of friends, and that's who we invited, end of story.

I'll just run you through the party from start to finish.  All of the photos are courtesy of my dear friend Jenn Stock.  She was kind enough to come to the party, just to take pictures of the whole thing, requiring only a slice of cake for payment.  She did a fantastic job--I would highly recommend her if you need a party photographer!  Jenn took close to 400 pictures, but because this isn't a private blog, I'm not going to show any that include the faces of Nate's friends.  Here we go!

How do you get into the world of magic?  The Hogwarts Express, of course!  We transformed our front door into Platform 9 3/4.  I made a sign to match the sign from the movie, then painted a sheet to look like a brick wall.  The kids ran through a slit in the sheet, just like the wizards run through the brick wall.

I also made a flag to hang in front of the house.  Even though it was small and a last minute addition, this was one of my favorite things from the party.  I thought about using balloons to mark our house, but decided on this instead.  So much cooler than balloons!

The Great Hall in Hogwarts, one of the first places students go upon arrival, has an enchanted ceiling--It's enchanted to look like the sky outside.  We chose a night sky.

To help the kids feel like they're really at Hogwarts, we dressed them all in wizard robes.  I sewed all nine robes, and while it took a significant amount of time, I'm so glad that I did.  They definitely added to the atmosphere of the party and made for an awesome take-home.  So once the kids came inside, they got their robes.

Once the robes were one, the next step was to choose a wand.  Alan carved all of these wands himself!  He made them all different and unique.  Isn't he amazing?

At Ollivander's Wand Shop, the kids could decorate their wands with markers.

They also chose a core for their wands.  Harry's wand has a Phoenix feather as its core.  Alan drilled a hole in one end of each wand so that the kids could add a core to their wands.  We had feathers and jewels (dragon scales).  After the kids filled their wands (stuffed their wands) with cores, I sealed the holes with hot glue.  The kids loved this--Alan's a genius.

So everybody has their robes and wands, and have arrived at Hogwarts.  What's next?  The Sorting!  I made the Sorting Hat with crumpled brown paper bags, hot glued to an old black witches hat.  We stuffed the speaker end of a baby monitor into the hat, while Alan spoke into the microphone end of the monitor from the basement.  He talked about each child's characteristics and sorted them all into one of the four Hogwarts Houses.  After the party, one of the dads asked us how we did it--He couldn't figure out if we recorded something, and if so, how we knew which child would go when.  So I think this was a success!

The Sorting is done; it's time for classes!  Potions was held in our dining room.  We added all of the leafs to our table and brought the benches from our picnic table inside.  We covered the table and benches with black tablecloths, a small detail that really added to the feeling that we were at Hogwarts.

The first potion consisted of an explosive clear liquid (water), jellyfish serum (bubble solution), and bubble rocks (dry ice).  Each child was given a small ceramic cauldron and we helped them add the right amount of everything.  This potion created amazing bubbles that flowed constantly from their cauldrons. They were completely captivated.

We had to rinse out the cauldrons between potions, so the kids spent the time stupifying each other. 

The next potion was a mixture of water and Iocane Powder (cornstartch).  We had each child add one drop of a food coloring of their choice to the mixture.  They had a lot of fun mixing and then playing with the solution.  One of Nate's friends said, "It's like a solid liquid."  He's a smart one!

This made a huge mess, so I was very glad that we had put down the tablecloths.

After Potions was over, it was time for a little QUIDDITCH!  Isn't Abbie cute in her robe?

Alan made each child a broom, yes, he made nine brooms.  He found sticks on the side of the road, broke up a bunch of twigs, and tied it all together with twine.  Amazing.

Alan nailed six hula hoops to wood boards, then  slammed them into the ground.  We put three on each side of the yard.  I then spray painted all of the hula hoops gold.  The kids played Quidditch using three balls, a Quaffle and two Bludgers.  They had to get the Quaffle into one of the hoops, but if they were hit with a Bludger, they had to drop the Quaffle.  There were also two seekers, one from each team, who were devoted to seeking out the Golden Snitch (a golf ball painted gold and hidden before the party).  We rotated the seekers so that everybody got a chance to search.  Once the Golden Snitch was found, i.e. pointed out by Alan, the game was over.

Quidditch went unbelievably well.  Nobody got stabbed by another player's broom; there was no crying, taunting, or overly competitive behavior.  Everybody had fun, and it was so entertaining to watch.

After Quidditch, we all returned to the Great Hall for cake!  Nate wanted a Golden Snitch cake.  So... I made him a Golden Snitch cake!  The wings are made from melting candies (for molds) that I piped onto waxed paper, set over a paper on which I drew a picture of the wings.  So I traced the picture with melted candy, let it harden, then coated it with gold edible pearl dust.  Sparkles!  I used sparkly gel to draw the pattern on the outside of the cake, matching the pattern on the real Golden Snitch as well as I could.  I paused the movie in a gazillion places to try to see the real outside of the Snitch.

This was the coolest part of the cake by far--It was filled with Jelly Bellies, i.e.. Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans!  When I cut the first piece out of the cake, the Jelly Bellies all spilled out too.  The kids (and adults!) thought that it was pretty amazing.  One of the dads was completely incredulous that I had made the cake--He told me that it was "just so magical."  Talk about a compliment!

What do you serve with cake at Hogwarts?  Butterbeer!

This party went off without a hitch.  We spent so much time planning and preparing for the party--I really think that it paid off.  Everything went smoothly during the party, the kids had a blast and I feel like it was a truly memorable party.  But best of all, Nate loved it.  That's what really matters.